The long, sometimes exhilarating, often exhausting road to GTA 6 has given us more twists and turns than the crime series' most memorable mission scripts. Now, just under three months from launch, it's finally within touching distance. We've now finally seen the bumper GTA 6 extended look showcase on Netflix. And we can now finally temper the omnipresent background noise and fix our gaze on November 19.
At least a little bit. Blocking out the external rabble, of course, has been a mission unto itself for literal years now. But if we take everything shown off during the 26-and-a-half-minute gameplay demonstration in isolation, powering through the next several weeks will be its own reward.
A sight to behold
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Because, quite simply, GTA 6 in practice looks excellent. As I write this, in the immediate aftermath of one single watch-through of the larger-than-life mix of free-flowing gameplay, seamlessly transitioned cutscenes and staged set-pieces all captured on PS5, I'm fully aware I haven't taken everything in. Like you, I'll rewatch, again and again (on Netflix and latterly YouTube) and will then leave the subsequent, and inevitably enthralling, Easter egg hunt to the intrepid internet sleuths whose weird, wonderful and ever-meticulous discoveries will forever inspire. What I'll attempt to do right now is instead place this moment in time.
GTA 6 is huge. It's huge in spirit, in character and in detail; assertions that can now all be confidently made following a showcase that encompasses a botched drug deal, a post-bank robbery police chase and a millionaire's brutally ambushed party. My notes during these breakneck segments include: 'distinguishable arm hair', 'lifelike cellulite', 'brows slick with sweat', 'so many characters on screen' – scrawled shorthand that underlines how credible everything on show really is.
Between those set-pieces, flashes of domestic life outline thoughtful everyday exchanges between dual protagonists Lucia and Jason, and, better still, hint at just how big this world is.
There's a moment during the Extended Look where the pair leave their apartment, hop into a banged up-looking convertible and pull out of a car park into a busy thoroughfare. In that moment, Depeche Mode's 'People Are People' plays from the radio as the car's canvas roof retracts, and while it's not quite as iconic Tommy Vercetti revving up a scooter to the sound of 'Billy Jean' in the original Vice City, it's a stark reminder that we have a whole new Grand Theft Auto world with whole new possibilities to explore – for the first time in 13 years, no less.
This sense of scale and freedom is accentuated by snippets of Jason and Lucia shooting hoops, gliding through the Everglades, canoeing, swimming, tearing up nightclubs and rallying around Nascar circuits. Oh, and robbing a lot of commercial establishments at gunpoint. Switching characters prompts the familiar aerial zoom-in zoom-out system adopted by GTA 5 – and copied by the likes of Marvel's Spider-Man 2 – and duck-and-cover shootouts feel like GTA Online dialled up to 11. Which is, surely, the exact desired effect.
What I'm more enthralled by at this point, though, is the sophisticated interplay between the game's protagonists. Sure, this is but a snapshot of their relationship, but while GTA 5's trifecta of social class-spanning antiheroes are good fun, they're hardly what you'd describe as three-dimensional. GTA 4's Niko Bellic, in fact, was more well-rounded than Michael, Franklin, and Trevor, but I already want to learn more about Jason and Lucia as individuals and how they will operate as a team.
That longing for more will be my overarching feeling from hereon, but it's also one that's defined, and perhaps pervaded, GTA 6's path to this point in broader terms. I won't spend too much time addressing the most recent leaks but I do believe they're worth acknowledging in the wider context of the game's imminent release. Full disclosure: I was aware of them. I caught glimpses as they popped up on social media feeds and instant messaging chats over the last several days, but endeavored to by and large abstain knowing this Netflix offering was just around the corner.
Seeing it in motion, polished, pretty and, crucially, agonizingly close pre-release, is remarkable
I went into 'An Extended Look' relatively fresh, then, with wide eyes and an open mind. The latter, I can confirm, has since been assuredly blown. Because while it's been clear for some time the next venture of Rockstar's blockbuster open-world crime simulator series will be a generational tone-setter – something the leaks have inadvertently helped support – seeing it in motion, polished, pretty and, crucially, agonizingly close pre-release, is remarkable all the same. The leaks, then, are but another anecdote in what is surely one of the most intriguing game development stories in the history of video games, warts and all.
The recent leaks have been less than ideal. The source code leaks a few years back were less than ideal. News of the alleged union-busting practices behind the scenes on the road to release was less than ideal. But the very fact a video game gameplay preview has debuted on Netflix at all (albeit following on YouTube hours later) is a huge moment for video games.
Granted, this is a rich-in-resources series whose ads for previous online updates have dominated billboards in Times Square, and the 'coming soon' trailers that precede Marvel movies in cinema theatres, but this level of pre-release prestige is nevertheless worthy of admiration. These moments are transcendental, pushing video games firmly into the mainstream with a zeitgeist status that is, for me, up there with Fortnite's mid-pandemic Travis Scott concert, or going back a wee bit further, Lara Croft chugging Lucozade in British television adverts 30 years ago. The fact that my 76-year-old mother texted me 10 minutes after the showcase trailer dropped asking "have you seen the new GTA 6 on Netflix?" speaks volumes.
Love is a long, long road, crooned Tom Petty on the soundtrack of the first GTA 6 trailer at the very end of 2023. Now, closing in on one thousand days later with 281.4 million YouTube views in the bag since, the end of that road is now well within sight. How many times the latest GTA 6 Extended Look showcase will be viewed between now and November 19 remains to be seen, but enjoy this moment for everything it is: sometimes exhilarating, often exhausting; but also historic, both in Grand Theft Auto terms and the grand pantheon of video games more generally.
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